


Risk

by GalaxyMuse



Series: Patonejo Pack [7]
Category: Saint Seiya, saint seiya 2019, saint seiya netflix
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Sledding, Snow, like tim gunn says make it work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 15:23:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16956522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyMuse/pseuds/GalaxyMuse
Summary: She was different. Different in a way he always found hard to put into words. Fighting side by side with Shaun for so long made him realize she was more than a battle companion, more than a partner, more than a friend.He wasn't sure how he'd be able to tell her, but gathering up the courage to ask her out was a start. The freshly fallen snow made a sledding date possible, so why not try that?Thanks as always to Overactive Imagination for help with editing this work!





	Risk

**Author's Note:**

> This piece's inspiration comes twofold. First, this is a response to the controversial change to Andromeda Shun's gender change in the anticipated 2019 Netflix reboot of the series. While this was met with a lot of backlash and my own reluctance at first, over time I came to take this as an opportunity to explore the character in a new light. This fic is the result of that exploration. 
> 
> Secondly, NightlyMuse gave me the prompt on tumblr a while back for classic Hyoga/Shun that went: "Hyoga convinces Shun to take him sledding, and they fall on top of each other. When Shun asks if Hyoga's alright, he responds with 'I don't know, I see an angel looking down on me.'"
> 
> My hope with this fic is to hopefully help people see the good in this transition, and to at the very least give it a chance. I hope you enjoy it!

Shaun: _“Sure, where?"_ Was the text Hyoga got back when he finally gathered up the courage to ask her out.  
Hyoga: _“How about at the park just past the old training ground? Remember that one?"_ he replied as fast as possible  
Shaun: _“Ok :) what time?"_  
Hyoga: _"tomorrow, 1 am?"_  
Hyoga: _"PM! I meant pm, sorry," he hurriedly texted back._  
Shaun: _“Sure hoped that's what you meant, lol."_  
He sighed with relief  
Hyoga: _"So how does it sound?"_  
Shaun: _“Sounds good. See you then :)"_

The crunching of snow under their feet filled the void left by a tense silence. What was there to say? Should he ask if it was hard to get here, or would that make him sound rude? Should she ask him where they were going, or did he want to keep it a surprise? Nevertheless, the longtime friends were suddenly left lacking in words when left isolated from their tightly-knit group. Alone, together, on a date. 

Shaun was the first to break their silence. "Things have changed since we were here last, haven't they?" 

It seemed like only yesterday they were all just kids learning to be little warriors for a goddess they knew very little about. Some of the playground structures had changed, or showed the rust and peeling paint indicative of their age. Lots of little kids with their parents were running around the monkey bars and the slide. An ache for something Hyoga missed and Shaun never had passed through them as they saw the little ones running to their parents to check in with them. 

"They sure have," Hyoga replied. "I guess you could argue for the better."

"Thanks to us saving the world and all that nonsense no doubt," Shaun added.

"Mostly you, let's be honest." Hyoga added.

Shaun turned to him in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"You're, you're always really great out there," Hyoga said, thinking back to their battle in the desert against those intimidating helicopters. "Back out in the desert, we would have been swiss cheese if not for your rolling defense."

"Oh, that?" Shaun replied. "Yeah, I guess that was pretty cool. But it doesn't mean I should hog all the glory. You did great that time with the-"

With a flourish that caught her off-guard, Hyoga spun around and spread his arms wide. "Here we are!" 

Confusion spread across her face. "Hyoga, what the heck are we doing at the edge of the park?" They were standing at the edge of a steep slope that marked the end of the play and picnic area. 

"You'll see, just one sec," answered Hyoga with excitement. He then scurried off to some nearby shrubs. It took a second for him to find and pull out a piece of roof sheeting. It had been bent in the front to emulate a toboggan. "Ta-da!" he grinned.

"You gotta be kidding me," Shaun giggled.

"What? Not a fan?"

"No, not at all. Always wanted to try it."

"I know, you mentioned it in the group chat! I thought it'd be a good idea with all  
the snow we've been getting."

"Yeah, but-on something that's actually a sled. I dunno if you can D.I.Y. this sorta thing," she said with a gesture towards the makeshift toboggan.

"It'll be fine! I tested it myself yesterday before I texted you," he assured her, dragging it further towards the edge of the slope. "See? Works just as well."

"And you're sure about this?" she asked again. 

"Completely. Isaac and I used stuff like this all the time for sleds back in Russia."

Her sense of adventure overtaking her, Shaun gave a thumbs up. "’Kay then Mister Pro-Sledder, show me how it's done!"

Hyoga grinned from ear to ear and positioned it just before the slope began. "I'll steer from the back, so you go ahead and kneel at the front. We’ll use our weight as we lean to steer.”

“Gotcha.” Complying, Shaun kept her giddiness contained as she sat. 

"How fast are we gonna get to go in this thing?" she asked, attempting to act casual. 

"What happened to being not so sure about this?" Hyoga teased as he kneeled towards the back of the toboggan. 

"If you said it's fine then it's fine, right? I trust you," she said quickly, thankful for having her back to him to hide her quickly forming blush.

"Really?" he paused, taken aback and slightly flustered.

Her hair whipped as she looked over her shoulder. "Well duh, after everything we've been through it'd be kinda rude of me not to, wouldn't it?!" Butterflies formed in her stomach, much to her chagrin.

"Well, I guess I appreciate hearing it out loud. Thank you," Hyoga swooned.  
"On the count of three, I’ll kick us off. Ready?” 

“Ready!” Shaun called.

“Okay, hold on tight! One, two, three!" 

With a shove from Hyoga, they were off. The descent began slowly as they went through the more powdery layers of snow, eventually picking up speed as new flakes began to fall. 

Shaun let out a cry and whoop of excitement as she felt the wind whip through her hair and sting her cheeks. 

On his cue they both used their feet to bring the toboggan to a steady halt at the bottom of the slope. Wide-eyed and ready for more, she turned quickly to Hyoga. 

"That was amazing! Let's do it again!" she cheered, thinking nothing of grabbing his hand to take him back up the hill. 

They raced down the hill a few more times with rings of laughter. The duo tried out a few turns here and there, improving their time and coordination. The sun began to set early as it did during the winter, and Shaun proposed one more ride before they called it quits. 

"Let's go as fast as we can!" she exclaimed. 

Caught in the excitement, Hyoga agreed. "I can make us go pretty fast, so brace yourself!" 

He touched the bottom of the toboggan while summoning his cosmo, covering it in a layer of slick ice. Already finding it difficult not to slip off, the two prepared for the descent. 

"One, two, three!" they said together, and Hyoga kicked off. 

The two glided down, jumping briefly from newly-formed bumps from their many trips. They whooped and laughed, filled with adrenaline as the world in the moment was a blur. 

"Okay, let's hit the brakes!" Hyoga called earlier than usual, making sure they would have time to fully do so. 

However, when Shaun tried to use her leg, it did little good. Hyoga joined in the effort with his with the same effect. Finding themselves speeding closer and closer to the dead end at the bottom, Hyoga knew they'd have to act fast. 

"Shaun! Hang on!" he said, and raised his intertwined hands above him. "Diamond Dust!" With that command, several blasts of ice emerged from his hands and formed a slide along the dead end wall that turned them away from it. 

“Lean hard! NOW!” Hyoga called over the howl of the wind and the roar of the toboggan against the snow. 

“Way ahead of you!” Shaun cried back, the two working in perfect sync to shift their path enough to catch the icy slide and turn the toboggan away from the potential crash. 

Sighing with relief, Hyoga still realized he wasn’t out of the woods. In fact, they were heading right into them at breakneck speed. 

“Put out your feet to brake again! I’ll try to steer us clear!” he told her, using every ounce of experience he had in him to get them to safety. 

Shaun put out her foot again. While it had better results, the toboggan’s velocity meant Hyoga would have to make a jarring swerve to avoid the pine right in front of them. He grunted as a sharp branch sliced at him during the turn, but he put no thought to it as they both realized the toboggan was about to launch off a snowy dune with no escape route in sight. Once they hit the natural ramp, the toboggan soared through the air and sent the knights flying. 

Thinking fast, Hyoga reached for Shaun’s hand and pulled her close. He did his best to face his back to wherever they’d land and braced for impact, hoping he’d absorb the shock for her. 

Finding herself alarmingly close to Hyoga all of a sudden flustered her out of the fear of falling and into acting. She stretched her arm past him and cried, “Rolling Defense!” 

At her command, her armor tag began to glow. The sacred chains extended from her arm to the ground, creating a repelling force that broke their fall. Instead of a potential spine shatter, the two only hit the ground with a hollow thud. 

Once she caught her breath, Shaun pulled herself away from Hyoga and grew alarmed all over again. “Hyoga! What happened to you?!” 

Laying on his back as his vision was doubled, he groaned at the sound of Shaun’s distress. “Are you okay?” he asked, too dizzy to get up just yet.

“Me? You’re the one bleeding! What happened to your eye?!”

The branch from earlier had cut Hyoga just above his left eye, causing a thick stream of blood to flow from it. Gingerly dabbing at it with his finger, he felt the damage wasn’t major. 

“Branch, I think,” he mumbled, more worried about Shaun. “Are you hurt?” 

“No thanks to you! Why the heck did you take the fall like that?! You could have hurt yourself! Can you feel your legs?”

He could at least feel her legs pressed against them, causing a blush to rush to his face. 

“Y-yeah? Yeah, sure.”

“Hyoga, snap out of it! Are you alright?”

In any other situation he’d call himself insane for what he said next, but the near-death experience had made him bold. 

“I don’t know,” he said with a weak smile, “I see an angel looking down at me.”

“An angel? What the hell are you-” realizing his intent, Shaun paused. Her face face flooded beet red. 

“Now’s not the time to tell me how pretty I am, you idiot!” she protested, shaking him by the shoulders. “We have to get that stitched up right now!”

“Ok, ok I’m sorry! Just stop shaking me!” begged Hyoga as he tried to get up.

\----

The sun had long since set by the time Hyoga got his wound tended to, now strutting a wrap that covered his left eye. The two had spent their downtime post urgent care at a nearby cafe that Shaun had frequented before. Stomachs filled with pastries and coffee, the two returned to the now emptied playground and sat on the 3-chain tire swing. 

“Remember when your brother would swing all four of us on this thing?” Hyoga asked, keeping his fingers wrapped around his drink. 

“God yes, and Seiya was always nauseous afterward,” she laughed. “How’s it feeling?” she asked him, looking to his gauzed up eye.

“For the twelfth time, it just stings a little,” he teased, not wanting her to worry.

“I’m just worried is all,” she pouted, nudging his foot with hers. 

“I know you are, it’s why-” 

“Why what?”

“Why I-” 

_Why I like you_ was what he wanted to say, but found himself suddenly too timid to confess. 

“Why I think you’re such a great part of the team. How much you care about us,” he finally said.

Shaun turned her head away in embarrassment. “So what? That’s what the token girl does, right?”

Hyoga furrowed his brow. “It’s girly to have compassion? Since when?”

She leaned her head against one of the swing chains and slowly rocked them back and forth. “Just something I think about sometimes. Have to wonder if Sienna keeps me around to hold up some sort of quota.”

“Shaun,” Hyoga said, putting down his cup on the ground, “I doubt that’s it at all.”

“What else could it be?” she asked, her eyes downward. “I wear pink armor, god knows we’re kinda short on girls, and the four of you can be so bull-headed sometimes that I swear I’m the only thing that keeps you guys from losing your limbs or something. All things the girl’s supposed to be there for, right?” 

She looked back up towards him, embarrassed to admit these lingering thoughts. “I can’t believe I’m even saying this out loud. I guess near death by sledding will do that to you, right?” she laughed dryly.

Hyoga shared in the awkward moment with a matching laugh. “I guess it would, wouldn’t it? But you’re wrong, you know. I think I actually know exactly why Sienna thinks so highly of you.”

Shaun looked back up towards him. “Is it my angelic good looks?” she smirked. 

“Besides that,” He muttered, his gaze softening as he spoke. 

“Shut up,” she whined, punching him in the arm. “You’re such a sap it makes me sick.” She buried her head in her scarf to hide her bashful grin. 

Hyoga continued after rubbing his arm and grinning at the success of flustering her. “You learned how to be an amazing fighter from your brother, but were wise enough not to emulate him. You think fast on your feet, and you put others before yourself. Not only for the sake of just Athena, but for so many others who can’t do what we do. You don’t take crap from anyone, but you’re willing to give everything you’ve got to make sure we’re safe. You listen, you open your heart in ways that so many other people wish they could.” 

Now having her full attention, Hyoga leaned in closer. “Shaun, you know you’re the only person I can really talk to about how much I miss my mom, right? The other guys-even June and Sienna-they sort of get it, but they don’t give me the time you do on snapchat when I can’t sleep, it hurts that much.”

Shaun smiled. “Well, only because you’re a really good listener too. Like now.” 

“I’m not sure if it’s hit you yet, but none of those things are really specific to girls. And if you think I’m putting myself out here because you’re the only girl, think again. I’m not picky.”

She knew he wasn’t. She was the first person he came out to about his bisexuality. 

Hyoga beamed, “When you were okay with it, it gave me the courage to tell everyone else and say out loud what I thought about those buff arms Geki’s got.” he waggled his eyebrows.

Shaun threw her head back and laughed. “You’re so ridiculous! The best part of that was the dumb back and forth you two had for weeks afterwards!”

Her laugh. He loved her laugh so much. “Shaun, you-” he caught his breath before continuing.  
“You mean so much to me. You would as a girl, and you would as a guy. It doesn’t matter. It’s who you are that makes you so important to Sienna and the other knights. It’s who you are and how I’ve felt about that for such a long time that took me this long to finally ask you out. and I damn near got you killed for it and-” 

He paused when he realized Shaun was only inches from his face.

Every word was enough. Enough for Shaun to let her own hidden feelings be known, if not in such an elaborate manner. 

“Shut up already bird brain,” she whispered, “you made your point.” 

A kiss sealed the gap between them. While one of his hands kept him balanced on the tire the other came forward, running his fingertips through her hair. It was soft as he daydreamed it’d be. Shaun had a similar curiosity, letting her free hand cup his chin and run a thumb gently along his cheek. Warm, welcoming, despite being the famous Ice Saint. She was glad to be wrong.

Another void of silence, filled in by the sound of their hearts beating in their ears and the wind that rustled the trees. 

The spell of the kiss broke, then resumed again. And again. Foreheads pressed against each other’s, they caught their breath and smiled. Frozen fingers laced together and hung on as if this long awaited moment would dissolve if they let it slack.

“Hyoga?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really glad you finally asked me out.”

“Me too,” he mused, giving her a quick peck. “How about we head back to the manor? I’m sure Sienna wouldn’t want us out too long or she’ll get worried.”

“Not just yet. Maybe when you finish your coffee?”

Hyoga agreed and picked up the drink. Taking a sip, his face soured. “Shoot, it got cold.”

“I think I can help,” Shaun offered, placing her hands atop his. She closed her eyes and tapped into a thin stream of her cosmo. A pink glow formed around her silhouette. The glow spread to his hands and the cup before wrapping itself around the rest of him. 

“It’s really warm all of a sudden,” he blushed. 

“It’s something I’ve been working on,” Shaun said, trying her best to keep her focus. 

He felt the cup warming in his hands. In only a few moments it was warm enough to drink again. So innovative. 

Just another thing he loved about them.


End file.
